Revelations about Surprise

I think I may have a path that will work for the surprise system.  Instead of thinking about this in normal means i have to think in a more abstract manner.  Since the system has to fit into different areas at the same time.  To think of the system in absolutes will only cause me issues as I would then have to map out each absolute.

So with that in mind, I have come to the idea of passive and active surprise.  Passive surprise occurs when characters meet with out any use of skill.  Random encounters, bumping into another in a crowd, things like that. While active surprise applies any time a character is using a skill to surprise an opponent.

So both of the examples that I used in the previous post would be considered instances of active surprise.  This way I can make a system that is varied and complete but will also not take the better part of twenty pages to write about.